


That time before Wembley

by Krash39



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 11:52:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18603979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krash39/pseuds/Krash39
Summary: "Oh, poor Rian .....he gets migraines" -Alex Gaskarth BBC Radio 1interview





	That time before Wembley

"Rian. Lobby call in ten buddy" A voice trailed the light pounding on the hotel room door. Rian pulled the pillow tighter over his head but the words still left colored streaks of light behind his closed eye lids. He groaned and dared to crack one open. The morning light burned between the drawn slats of the blinds as if the sun itself were directly behind them. "Gimme a fucking break London." He swore and rolled over, turning his back to the floor-to-ceiling death ray, trying to overcome the nausea by sheer force of will.

He'd woken up at 3 am with the equivalent of a stadium blaring in his head. The floor had turned to pudding as he tumbled out of bed, rolling in waves that made the storms he'd seen on "Deadliest Catch" look like a wading pool. He'd barely made it to the small bathroom sink before emptying the contents of his stomach in an impressive fashion. Even the predawn darkness had been too bright, glaring through his left eye, stealing half of his vision. Rian fumbled through his backpack desperately looking for the small green bottle of Excedrine he prayed he'd thrown in there.

5 hours and 3 pills later he still couldn't quite bring himself to function in more than slow motion with a pair of dark sunglasses. A shower was unthinkable no matter how attractive the warm steam might have seemed - so he pulled on a pair of dark blue jeans (He hoped they were blue, he wasn't taking off the glasses to check) and a long sleeved t-shirt. He pulled a light hoodie over his head as he made his way down the hall towards the elevator.  
"Kill me." He thought as the overly pleasant robot voice announced each floor it descended. The car stopped with one final bell and Rian suppressed the urge to flip it off; concentrating instead on making his way across the too bright lobby without looking like he was drunk.  
  
"Woa, dude. You ok?" Alex asked looking up from his phone. At least Rian thought it was Alex, his voice sent yellow sparks shooting between the fuzzy edges of his vision. He felt his stomach churn and swallowed hard. "Migraine." He muttered. It was enough. "Oh shit." Alex immediately, thankfully, dropped the volume of his voice to just over a mumble, and shifted to cast a shadow over his friend's face. "You cool? You kinda look like the Walking Dead."  
Rian nodded, not trusting opening his mouth again. He felt the slight pressure of fingertips on his elbow and followed it's direction, shuffling over to a chair in a semi -dark corner. "Van's not here yet, you sure you wanna come today?" Alex asked as Rian leaned his head back against the wall. "Yea, I'll live." he croaked, not bothering to try to sound convincing. The cool, solid wall felt good behind his throbbing head, and before he'd noticed them shut, Rian felt his eyes snap open as a hand gently shook his shoulder.  
"Hey Ri, van's here." This time it was Jack quietly leading him towards the front doors. Had Rian been less preoccupied with his brain caving in, he might have wondered at his friend's ability to go from one of the loudest human's ever, to the quiet guide he was currently.

The street noise hit him first, between the foot traffic and the cars Rian ducked his head down and gritted his teeth. Again he felt a light touch prompting him forward, and was happy for the muffled interior of a van. It was an improvement, but not enough to break the tension in his hunched shoulders. He assumed someone had mentioned something to the driver because the radio switched off quickly. Sometimes, he had the best friend's on Earth. Voices stayed hushed inside the car, it was too early for any of their normal, boisterous banter anyway and half an hour slipped by with only one harrowing moment he thought he might have to ask for them to pull over.

The door of the van grated open and Rian made to step out when the Earth took a left turn and somehow he ended up sitting on the floor of the van, with his sneakers over the edge. "Oookay" Alex said, exasperation in his voice. "Seriously Rian, ride the bench for this one." He looked up while trying to remember how his legs worked. "But -" He cut off as he wretched, precariously holding back the urge to vomit. "Real talk dude, cause I'm gonna puke in a second." Jack echoed looking away with a hand over his mouth. Finally he nodded, disappointed at his relief. He climbed back into the seat as his friend's waved from the sidewalk. "Chill, we'll met you back at the hotel." Alex closed the door the rest of the way.

The ride back took mercifully less time and much to his relief Rian was soon crawling back into bed. " **Made it back**." He managed to shoot off the text as his eyes began to close again. " **Good. Need NE thing?** " The text from Jack buzzed back. " **No**." Rian slipped the phone into the table drawer and buried himself under the pillow again.


End file.
